ADB’s Successor—The NIH Business System
An NIH-wide effort is underway to develop a replacement for the 22-year-old Administrative Data Base (ADB). Its replacement at the NIH administrative computing system—the NIH Business System (NBS)—will likely take four years and cost an estimated $50 million. NBS will revolutionize the way NIH business affairs are conducted by providing powerful capabilities and functions not possible with the ADB.

Biowulf—Parallel Supercomputing on the "Cheap"
Biowulf—a 224-processor supercluster of PCs, running the Linux operating system and interconnected by a high-speed network—can be an effective and low-cost way to solve some very large computational problems in bioscience.

Charging for Wylbur Mail Data Sets to End July 2 on the South System
CIT is ending charges for WYLBUR mail data sets in users’ mail boxes because of the unpredictability in size—and therefore costs.

OS/390 Standard System to Be Available in August 2000
CIT plans to have the OS/390 standard system available at the NIH Computer Center beginning August 31, 2000. The migration of the North system to the standard system will begin in September 2000. The South system migration—to begin when the North system migration is complete—will involve more changes because of its high level of customization.

Getting Tape Data Ready for the OS/390 Standard System
Two concepts are critical to tapes on the OS/390 standard system—data set naming conventions and cataloging of tape data. Users can do several things immediately to prepare for the transition to the standard system.

OS/390 North System Moves to Generic RACF Profiles
Effective July 31, 2000, automatic data set protection (ADSP) will be turned off on the North system. At that time, a discrete profile will no longer be automatically built whenever a new data set is created. CIT is making this change in preparation for the OS/390 standard system that will become available in August.

Operating in the Generic RACF Profile Environment on the North System
On July 31, 2000, new North system data sets will be protected by generic RACF profiles rather than discrete profiles. Users and agencies may need to make changes in order to create and access data sets created after July 31. The switch to generic RACF profiles opens new approaches to data set protection and gives users and agencies better control of their security environments.

Virtual Storage Manager to Be Implemented on the North System
On July 17, 2000, the Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) will be used for North system user-owned tapes—and all new North data set allocationsto the unitname CTAPE will generate tapes in the VSM.

Another Successful Disaster Recovery Test
CIT’s hot-site test on February 23, 2000, was an unqualified success. On the day before the test, CIT successfully tested all communications paths to the hot site for the OS/390 (MVS) and EOS environments. The next hot-site test is scheduled for August 15, 2000.

SCRC Is Closing at the End of June
After eight years of service to the NIH scientific community, the Scientific Computing Resource Center (SCRC) will close its doors at noon on June 30.

High-Speed Network Printing Is on the Way
CIT is developing a mechanism to provide network access to the central high-speed printers. This will enable high-volume print requests to be sent from word processors, browsers and other applications.

Support to Be Discontinued for Selected Older Technologies
As of October 1, 2000, CIT will discontinue support for certain older modems, terminals, printers and controllers. Alternatives to these items are readily available.

Model 204 on the North System Was Upgraded to Version 4.2 in May
The upgrade to Model 204 to version 4.2 (a maintenance release) on May 29 was largely transparent to users.

Account Sponsor’s Manual Is Now Available
Procedures for account sponsors are contained in a new publication, Procedures for Deregistration Officials and Account Sponsors, which also updates information in the old deregistration officials’ manual.

If You Use SAS/C—Please Contact CIT
CIT is reviewing support for the SAS/C compiler. If you would like to see SAS/C continued in CIT’s OS/390 environment, please contact TASC.

Do You Want to Know When Interface Is on the Web?
Subscribers to the Interface-L listserv list will be notified when the Web version of Interface is available.

CIT Computer Training—Summer Session Begins the Last Week of June

Computer Training Calendar—Summer 2000